陈景润的启示 1+1=2 Indivisible Individuals

Each individual is the beginning and end to himself (or herself). Only by understanding that individual human beings are the ultimate entities in the universe, freedom is possible.

每一个个人都是他自己的开始与终结。 只有当我们懂得个人是无限宇宙中的最终实体的时候，自由才成为可能。

**************************************

By Kai Chen 陈凯 (Written 9/15/2006, Reprint 9/27/2011)

I often wondered when Mr. Chen Jingrun 陈景润 was struggling, in his feeble physical condition and under intense political persecution during the Cultural Revolution, trying to solve the famous "Goldbache Conjecture" in the field of mathematics, symbolized by the equation 1+1=2, did he ever realize the philosophical implication of his effort？

“1+1=2” symbolizes what the conjecture means: Any even number is the sum of two prime numbers. What is a prime number? A prime number is a number that can only be divided by 1 and itself. In other words, a prime number is an absolute mathematical entity that is indivisible. （2，3，5，7，11，13，17，19，23，and so on so forth...)

If we say, philosophically, that an even number represents a collective, then any collective is a divisible notion, and composed only by two indivisible prime numbers. Hitler asserted that an individual is only some form of inheritance of his own genes. Marx assumed that an individual is only the reflection of some mysterious economic forces at work. The Chinese affirmed that an individual is nothing more than the collective memory of his ancestors' knowledge and wisdom.... All of them claim that an individual is not sovereign, not an indivisible entity governed only by God's laws, but only some meaningless number created, used-up and abandoned by the collective. They all claim somehow individual human beings must be controlled and governed by other humans or a collective humans called governments.

Only in capitalism, only in America, only in a free country, an individual is respected as an indivisible entity capable of making decisions, exploring into the unknown, creating with his or her imagination something no one has seen before. In one word, in a free society, only individuals are sacred entities whose rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness must be observed, respected and jealousely guarded. And indeed, as history has demonstrated to us, such a free society with sovereign individuals is a society of progress and creativity. America is such a prime example.

What Mr. Chen did not realize, perhaps, is that he was using his proof, he was using his life to prove to us that an individual's life is the beginning and end to itself, just like a prime number in mathematics. An individual's life is sacred and dignified and only God and himself can determine its true meaning. He is not a tool for others, neither is he only some component to a bigger entity with self-claimed lofty goals. He is an sovereign, moral, creative being, destined only by God to push the history forward. He is, as Ayn Rand passionately put -- the Fountainhead of human progress.

I hope all of you realize that you are indeed such an entity, you are indeed indivisible, you are indeed sacred, sovereign moral being. And the world is only Nothing without you the individual.

Now go out there to achieve and to realize that sacred meaning in your life.